The Operatives Episode 2: A Fall In The Dark
by TrueThought
Summary: A first challenge for the newly formed Operatives team; a planned Seperatist bombing of the Kuat shipyards, their uncooperative government and growing friction at home.
1. Chapter 1

The Operatives; Episode 2: A Fall In The Dark

Chapter One: In which The Operatives begin their first official mission.

"I need you to cover all calls for the next week or so," Padme was saying as she walked into the outer office, "And get Jar Jar back from Naboo, he'll need to cover me for the floor vote; he knows which way we're voting on this one."  
"The Chancellor's office called for you this morning," her secretary began.  
"I know, they found me at the senate," Padme replied, opening the door to her office.  
She saw the man sitting in the chair and turned back to her secretary, "Would it, by any chance, kill you to let me know there's someone in my office?"  
The secretary looked up in puzzlement, "There's someone in your office?"  
"Okay," Padme said hesitantly, turning back to the open door and whatever awaited her inside.  
"Your secretary must have popped out for something; I thought it would be alright to let myself in."  
"Do you need your brain tested?" Padme asked, starting to sort through the papers on her desk.  
"No," he said slowly, clearly not understanding.  
"Then do you mind telling me who you are and why you're in my office before I have you thrown out?"  
"I'm a reporter for the _Corescant Political Journal_-" he began.  
"Okay, I'm throwing you out myself," Padme interrupted and then calling out to her secretary, "I need Mortee to send over a case to landing bay 18 – she'll know what to pack."  
"You're going somewhere?" the reporter asked.  
"Start explaining yourself very quickly," Padme said in a deliberately slow voice, "Or get out; I'm on a tight schedule."  
"Can you tell me anything about a Jedi Master called Quinlan Vos?" he asked.  
"Who?"  
"Quinlan Vos, Jedi Master, recently back on Corescant; any of this ringing a bell?"  
"What's your name?" Padme asked.  
"Mares Toll, Corescant Political Journal."  
"Right," she said grabbing her robe and heading for the door, "I don't keep up to date with Jedi affairs."  
"But you have Jedi friends," he pointed out, "I heard you've been assigned to a special unit, several members of which are Jedi."  
"Where did you hear that?" she'd stopped at the door, her face thoughtful, "Why is Quinlan Vos interesting?"  
"I don't know," he replied, "I'm just getting vague direction from my editor."  
"Vague?" she asked.  
"Very," he said, "Is there anything to find?"  
"As I said, I don't know anything about him," Padme said, "and I have to go."

The Republic cruiser had been berthed in one of the bays at the military docks. Walking past were thousands of clone troopers on assignment to various destinations, but more than likely somewhere dangerous. Obi-Wan Kenobi found himself watching them almost wistfully for a while; he used to be going with them, now he wasn't.  
"We should say goodbye."  
"When he talks to us; he's still a general."  
"He won't mind. Sir!"  
Obi-Wan looked towards Rex's voice and smiled; he was standing with Alpha, who was looking irritated at Rex hailing a Jedi general in such a way, unsurprisingly.  
"How are you two?" he called back, grinning as he started towards the pair.  
"Very good sir," Rex replied, "We've been posted back to the Outer Rim; some exciting battles to win."  
"Yeah well," Obi-Wan said, "do me a favour and keep yourselves and your men alive would you? For when I get back into service; I'd like the chance to work with you again."  
Rex inclined his head, "I'll try general."  
"No you'll do," Obi-Wan said firmly, "That's an order."  
"Yes sir," the clone replied and with a smile, turned away to follow his men into the ship. Alpha gave a salute and followed.  
Obi-Wan sensed Bail Organa's approach behind him and so addressed him without turning.  
"You know there are days when I think 'to hell with this, let's just open peace negotiations with the Seperatists, give them whatever they want just so this madness can stop'."  
He nodded towards the clones boarding the transport, "I don't though, because too many of them have died for that to happen."  
"I think there are days we all feel like that in one way or another," Bail said in a sympathetic tone, "It's because it's been a year."  
"Almost a year and a half," Obi-Wan agreed.  
"So what about this new group idea?" Bail said as they started to walk towards the cruiser, "'The Operatives', there to solve all the diplomatic disputes we used to have the time for but don't anymore."  
"It's a good idea," Obi-Wan responded, "It's what we should be doing; I just wish it wasn't me."  
"Because you hate politicians and politics?"  
"Because I'm not a politician and I really hate having this sort of thing relying on me."  
"You wanted Mandalore relying on you."  
"Mandalore was sort of my fault," Obi-Wan pointed out, "This is different."  
"Well if it helps," Bail said, "there are four of us this time so if it gets screwed up the blame is quartered."  
Obi-Wan took a breath, "Bail, I'm going to tell you something you may not have been expecting to hear."  
"It didn't help?"  
"Not even a little bit."

Kit fairly sprinted up to them and skidded to a halt.  
"Did you know this guy was a Form 1 master?" Obi-Wan said to Bail with a grin.  
"Shut up," Kit said, very much out of breath, "I go the briefs from Pestage."  
"Do they make any sense?" Bail asked him.  
"I hope so," Kit said.  
"Well it'll be a first," Bail said with a shrug.  
They turned at the sound of Padme's speeder pulling up. She got out and headed towards them with a frustrated expression.  
"Sorry," she said as she reached them, "Held up by some reporter. Got the briefs?"  
"Only just," Kit gasped.  
Padme fell into step alongside Obi-Wan as they headed for the cruiser, "Obi-Wan what's important about Quinlan Vos?"  
Obi-Wan stopped in his tracks to look at her, "Why?"  
At that moment his comlink went off. Giving her a very careful look he stepped aside to answer it. Padme caught up with Bail and Kit; Bail was looking at the brief in his hand.  
"This is an interesting one," he was saying, "Kuat and a Seperatist bombing. Not bad for our first day."  
Obi-Wan came back with a gloomy look on his face.  
"Problem?" Padme prompted him.  
Obi-Wan looked at Kit when he responded.  
"The Chancellor's called Anakin back to Corescant; the Council are going to have the discussion with him."  
Kit looked down at his boots in a gesture of dissatisfaction, "They're actually going to discuss it with him."  
"Yes," Obi-Wan said; then as they boarded the ship he hit the side of the gantry with his fist.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: In which all are hoping for a more relaxing week.

"It's a bad idea," Kit said.

"I know," Obi-Wan murmured, fixing more of his attention on the ceiling of his cabin than on his fellow Jedi.

"I mean it's a _really_ bad idea," Kit said.

Obi-Wan sighed, "Yes, I know."

"I mean the council shouldn't be considering it, much less discussing it with Palpatine. Do you know why?"

"Because it's a bad idea?"

"Exactly."

"Kit," Obi-Wan said, forcing himself not to overreact, "Even if you hadn't said that almost ten times already today I would know it's a bad idea because I was in the council meeting when you said it – in fact, as I remember, I said it as well."

"Sorry," Kit muttered, "I'm just a little highly strung today."

Obi-Wan considered this, "Have you spoken to Aayla lately?"

Kit eyed him carefully, "Define lately."

Obi-Wan held his gaze a little defiantly, "Since Quinlan Vos came back."  
"Since you brought him back you mean."  
"Have you?"

Kit shook his head, "Not yet."

"Maybe you should."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Obi-Wan suddenly felt put, inexplicably, on his guard by Kit's tone, "Because this can't be easy for her and you two are quite close; at this point in time maybe she'd like to talk to a friend."

"Look," he continued rather hurridly, "I know a lot of people didn't like the fact that the Council acquitted Quinlan but the decision's been made now so-"

"You haven't any idea have you?" Kit said looking up at him, "Have you any idea how much trouble you've stirred up? Obi-Wan, not everyone's over Dooku yet, now you bring in Vos?"

"The Council agreed to take him back without question," Obi-Wan said slowly, realising he'd accidently entered into a conversation he'd planned on avoiding.

"You're the only one in the Jedi Temple who trusts him Obi-Wan," Kit said, "And since Zigoola nobody's quite sure exactly where your head is from day to day."

"My…'condition'…has nothing to do with this," Obi-Wan.

"You come back from a Sith planet and almost immediately bring a fallen Jedi back to the Temple? It has everything to do with it!"

When Kit spoke again he was clearly making an effort to bring his tone under control, "Look, I'm giving you advice; nobody trusts Vos - and the more you stand by him the less people are going to trust you."

"If that isn't an indication of how much the war has changed us for the worst I don't know what is," Obi-Wan said.

He hadn't wanted to have the conversation – he wouldn't have wanted to hear Kit's advice given the choice. He certainly didn't want to believe it but as the silence between them grew longer he realised that at this moment in time what Kit thought about Quinlan didn't matter.

He looked up at his friend, "I think when we get back we should talk to the Council again," he said in a more normal tone, as if those last few words had not been said, "After all, whatever the Chancellor says they still need my assent before they can do anything."

"There is that," Kit said, relaxing a little, "We should find the others and find out exactly what we'll be doing for the next few days."

"Yeah," Obi-Wan said, "First mission here we come."

"Apparently someone has a tip-off that Separatist bombers are going to attack the Kuat Drive Yards," Bail said with a touch of dry humour.

"Why do they always know exactly where to hit us?" Kit said with a groan, "Our major provider of ships and equipment – are they really ready to attack the shipyards?"

"I don't think they're going to attack it straight," Bail said, "It's a sneak attack, that's why it came down from one of our sources."

"Is this source-?" Obi-Wan began to ask.

"It's one of my mainstream ones," Bail assured him, "Believe me I know everything I need to about this one."

"So why is this our mission and not one for the regular army?" Kit asked.

"Because they won't let clone troops on the station," Padme replied.

"Excuse me?" Obi-Wan said.

"Onara Kuat refuses to allow clone soldiers onto the Kuat Shipyards and the planet itself."

"These are the best soldiers the galaxy has seen in decades," Kit said with a frown, "why, when she's facing a Seperatist threat to her planet, and biggest source of income, would she not accept expert help?"

"She has ethical reasons," Obi-Wan said before Padme could respond, not hiding his disgust, "Am I right?"

Padme glanced at Bail and took a breath, "The only reason Palpatine took on emergency powers at the start of the war was so that the Senate wouldn't have to vote on the army; they would never have accepted clones. Onara Kuat isn't the only person to have a problem with them."

"You don't have to tell me that," Obi-Wan muttered.

"You're not going to make an issue out of this are you?" Bail asked, sounding worried.

"This _is_ an issue!" Obi-Wan retorted, "These soldiers fight and die for us and we're supposed to sit back and allow people to throw this attitude around like it doesn't matter?"

"Obi-Wan we can't judge on what people think, however wrong it may be as we see it," Bail said, "they're not actively campaigning against clones, they're not ostracising them from their society, they're just refusing to accept the help of clones who didn't live on the planet of Kuat to begin with. It's not as if any clones are dying because of them – it's enough for us."  
"Do you ever worry about how often we just settle for enough? How much we draw a line and say that because it's on the right side of the line, by just that much, it's okay? Why do we have to draw the line at all? The Kuat system is on _our_ side, the clones are _our_ soldiers and we're asking them to fight for the Republic; we've decided on this already – shouldn't they agree with it by proxy, at least ostensibly? Why do we have to say that this is wrong but we can allow it because it could be worse – if it's wrong shouldn't we say so?"  
He shook his head, "Yes, I know how that sounds. Don't listen to me everybody, I just order clone soldiers to their deaths on a daily basis. The worst thing is I'm getting used to it."

Bail looked at the others and then nodded; a silent agreement to move the subject along.

"Okay so what's the strategy we're going with?"

"Well," Padme said, "President Onara Kuat isn't very fond of Jedi so we are going to have to ask formal permission to get involved but since the Chancellor is giving out direct orders to her I don't think we'll be refused."

"So once we've got permission?" Kit asked.

"We start combing the shipyards for explosives," Bail replied.

"We know for definite that they're hitting the shipyards?" Obi-Wan put in.

"Pretty sure," Bail said, "I mean we have no evidence of anything else."

"Fair enough but I'm just saying, if your source has heard wrong then we're looking at a potential attack on a civilian population which we are, in no way, prepared for."

"This one won't let me down," Bail assured him.

Obi-Wan held his gaze for a moment and then decided to trust him.

"If that happens we'll have to hope for some sort of warning before anything explodes," Padme said, "So Bail and I will handle the President, you two worry about ways to locate the bomb before it goes off."

"Fine by me," Obi-Wan said with a small smile, "You know how politicians give me a headache."

"One of many causes of such symptoms in our illustrious Master Kenobi," Bail added, grinning from ear to ear.

"You know what will be really annoying?" Kit said as they all got up, "If the Separatists haven't placed the bomb yet, if they plant it _after_ we've searched the shipyard."

"Don't say that!" Padme cried, "That's not something we want to even start contemplating!"

"Well the shipyards are pretty big," Obi-Wan said, "likely as not we'll still be looking after twenty-four hours."

"Nobody mentioned the long hours in this job," Bail muttered.

As they were leaving Padme caught Obi-Wan's arm, "Obi-Wan, I was going to ask you before; who is Quinlan Vos?"

"Who's asking?"

"Just a reporter from the _Corescant Political Journal_."

"What does he know?"

"Nothing; that's why he came to me."

Obi-Wan pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers, "Padme, could you ask me about this another time? Any other time would be fine."

She nodded, "Okay, but is it important?"

He couldn't look at her as he said it, "I don't think so."

Despite the fact Padme could tell he was lying, she said nothing.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: In which Bail tries to understand Master Fisto a little better.

The green orb of Kuat hung in space before them, encircling it, the metallic ribbon of the shipyards shining in the reflected light of the sun. Standing in the cockpit of the cruiser the four representatives of the Republic waited for their landing confirmation from the shipyard traffic office.  
Bail resisted the urge to glance at his companions as they'd already been waiting ten minutes; he wanted to see how they were reacting. Padme he knew well enough to know she'd be covering any tension she may be feeling with a veneer of calm control; but she always felt nervous before going into the negotiating room and this time there were lives hanging in the balance. War always seemed to put a new slant on issues. In the case of Kit Fisto he had no idea what to expect from the Jedi since he'd never worked with him before a few weeks ago. He made Bail worried by switching incredibly quickly between intense self-control that only ever came from a Jedi and a sort of clumsiness that hinted at a more disorganised nature; honestly there seemed to be no knowing which one would be coming into the room with him.  
As for Obi-Wan Kenobi, who knew what was going through his head. It had become very clear to Bail very early on that however much they'd been through together on Zigoola, his first instinct had been right; Obi-Wan had been alone on that planet inside his own head and Yoda's advice on their return that Bail let him work through it by himself seemed to be relevant right now. Unfortunately that meant Bail had to keep quiet and accept that he'd never know from day to day how his friend was coping and it would drive him crazy. Exactly how this team was going to work he didn't know. The idea of a team that would continue the diplomatic duties of the Republic while the rest was at war was a good idea but there were, perhaps, too many unknown variables, particularly with the personnel.

Forty five minutes later Onara Kuat met them and invited the two senators into her office leacing Obi-Wan and Kit outside. They sat down on a bench to wait.  
"Remind me why we agreed to this," Kit muttered after a while.  
"Because it sounded like a good idea," Obi-Wan replied.  
"Great," Kit said looking up at the ceiling, "Maybe this would be a good time to bail out."  
"What would you say?"  
"No idea."  
"So you were just thinking out loud then?"  
"Broadcasting unfinished thoughts."  
"Do you know you do that?"  
"Out loud? I really had no idea."  
"I'm starting to worry about you," Obi-Wan murmured.  
There wasn't a lot of light in the room; it was a long, high-roofed ante-room, with a few small windows very high up. The whole effect was somewhere between intimidating and depressing but it was hard to say where. He was about to suggest they go back to the ship and meditate in an effort to make the time pass more quickly when a shout arrested him.  
"Master Fisto, you turn up in the oddest of places!"  
A tall man in a white suit was striding towards them with a smile across his gentle features. Kit practically lept up and into the man's embrace with a laugh, "I didn't know you thought of your home planet as 'odd' Senator. Of course I am surprised to see you still here!"  
"Ah, ye of little faith Master Fisto," the man (who Obi-Wan supposed must be the Kuat senator Giddean Danu) replied, lightly, "the measure to remove me from my office was a highly and not very subtly illegal one and I studied law in my youth; though I will say it has made the atmosphere round here a little more frosty than it was."  
"Obi-Wan this is Senator Giddean Danu, Master Obi-Wan Kenobi of whom you may have heard," Kit said by way of introduction as the Jedi and the politician shook hands, "The Senator happened to get caught up in a nasty hostage situation and I was able to lend a hand. You know," he said turning back to Danu, "that's probably why the President hates Jedi, because I brought you back safe and sound!"  
"I'm rather hoping you can extend the same favour to Kuat herself," the senator replied, "I suppose there's no chance it's a false alarm? The Separatists _are_ going to make a strike against the shipyards?"  
"The maddening thing about Senator Organa's intelligence network is that it's usually right," Obi-Wan said with a rueful smile.  
"Bail's here too?" Danu sounded surprised.  
"You're good friends with Senator Organa?" Kit asked.  
"Fellow Loyalist Committee member," Danu replied, a touch defensively.  
"I see," Kit said slowly, looking over at Obi-Wan who shook his head, indicating they shouldn't go into the subject here and now.  
"Frankly I'd feel a lot better if you'd brought some clones with you," Danu mused.  
"To be honest so would we," Kit said, "Any idea when they're going to be finished in there?"  
The Senator laughed again, "How would I know? I'm just the planet's senator! Hold on out here and I'll have a look."  
He opened the door at the end of the room and disappeared inside.

"I'm surprised he's still wandering around to be honest," Kit said as they sat down again.  
"Was it that bad?" Obi-Wan asked.  
"What we have here is a crazy bunch of people," Kit said, "they wanted to pull him out of the Senate and remove him from political life; not the best option since Danu is probably the best senator Kuat has sent to the Senate floor in decades."  
"I knew I didn't like these people," Obi-Wan murmured.  
The door opened and Bail walked out with Padme and Danu. Bail waved the two of them over.  
"She's allowed us twenty-four hours and beds for the night," he said as they joined them.  
"That's good of her," Kit muttered.  
"I wouldn't complain Kit; it's got to be better than the Republic cruiser," Obi-Wan said, backing away as his comlink beeped.  
"I suppose you'll all be too busy to join me for dinner tonight?" Danu asked.  
"Once we've found the bomb my friend," Bail assured him, "once we've found it."  
Obi-Wan returned to the group looking sullen but he made an effort to smile, "Shall we start hunting then?"  
As they walked down the hall Kit leant over and murmured, "What did they say?"  
"The Chancellor wants it to go ahead; Anakin's already on Corescant though thankfully he hasn't been told about it yet. The Council want me to give my final decision when we get back."  
"You mean they want you to reject the idea."  
"I wonder if the Chancellor has any legal power to fire a general from the army if they're Jedi Masters," Obi-Wan wondered idly.

Bail put his head round Kit Fisto's door, "Padme's getting some kaff; do you want some?"  
"No thanks," Kit replied with a grimace, "dries me out too much."  
Bail nodded but hesitated in the doorway. Finally he came inside shutting the door behind him.  
"Master Fisto-"  
"It's probably 'Kit' by now Senator."  
"Then I'm 'Bail' to you I'm afraid," he replied with a smile, "I was wondering if you could tell me what it is that's bothering you and Obi-Wan at the moment."  
Kit frowned, "Did you have anything specific in mind?"  
"The com-calls to Corescant."  
The Nautolan sighed, "The Chancellor seems rather keen on boosting morale at the moment. His latest idea is to have Anakin Skywalker knighted."  
"Because he's such a prominent hero?"  
"Exactly."  
"I didn't think the Chancellor could do that," Bail said.  
"He can't," Kit said, "That's why the Jedi Council have been having meetings with him for the past week. They don't think Anakin's ready; knighting him before he's ready would be disastrous. Fortunately Obi-Wan will have to sign off on it which he won't. The game now is to get the Chancellor to accept that a Jedi Knight is a Jedi rank and therefore, however much like a father he may be to Anakin, in this Jedi matter it's Obi-Wan who is best placed to judge and is _his_ decision."  
"Which is what you're all trying to do," Bail said.  
Kit nodded.  
"Does it bother you less than Obi-Wan?" Bail asked, "How much everything is changing with regards to the Jedi?"  
"I think things bother Obi-Wan more these days for a number of reasons," Kit said carefully, "He's been at the front longer than I have so that would have an effect; Zigoola would be another factor but honestly I think there's still an element of guilt going all the way back to Genosis. The fact that one hundred Jedi came to save him of which only twenty returned to Corescant and because of his capture the debate comes to the Senate and the Chancellor gets special powers to start a war."  
"Despite whatever anyone may say about Jedi self-restraint, you must be the first person who hasn't said it's my fault," Bail said quietly.  
"With all due respect Senator," Kit responded, "I don't think anyone has said that to you; you know, you and Obi-Wan have been through a hellish experience that the rest of us can only imagine at and would prefer not to, but I can't help thinking that you would both get on a lot better if you stopped blaming yourselves. Obi-Wan might get back to the point where he didn't shout out his hatred of political issues at the slightest provocation."  
"I don't think it's that bad," Bail said.  
"Obi-Wan was known for his self-control, that's what made him and Qui-Gon Jinn such a good pair. What we saw this afternoon was a really bad sign."  
"I'll let you get some sleep," Bail said, getting up.  
Before leaving the room he turned, "Is Obi-Wan going to get better?"  
"Given time," Kit said.  
Bail shook his head, "I can't help thinking that's something you Jedi say to people you don't think know any better."  
"As I said Senator," Kit replied, "We can only imagine what you both went through."  
Bail looked at him for a while longer and then left, substantially subdued.

He didn't feel he understood the alien Jedi any better; he'd made no progress a few hours later when he was still awake. It was fortunate he was because he was able to catch the beep of his comlink on the frequency no one else knew about – the one his agent had called him on to tell him about Zigoola.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4; In which the team spots an army just in time.

Kit was asleep, until somebody hammered on the wall. He managed to drag his eyelids open to find that Obi-Wan was standing in the open doorway knocking on the doorframe.  
"We're under attack," he said and promptly vanished. Kit grimaced as he tried to move after a deep sleep.  
He found the others in the holo-projection room and all looking worried. The holo-projection didn't look too promising either.  
"What's that?" he asked.  
"A very big problem," Padme muttered. She looked half asleep and fairly dejected.  
"It seems my intelligence was a bit off," Bail said and he looked completely dejected.  
Obi-Wan put a hand on his friend's shoulder in a comforting gesture; he was managing to hide his mood but Kit could tell he was as worried as the others. "There's a Separatist army of droids dropping on the shipyards; there's only the one ship in the system but I'm betting there's more on the way. The problem is there's absolutely no time to bring in reinforcements."  
"I suppose the Kuat security forces aren't up to it?" Kit hazarded hopefully.  
"No," Bail said flatly, sinking into a chair, "We really can't rely on them."  
"That's not quite true," Obi-Wan interjected, "They're available as a ground force but that'll buy us time rather than actually repelling the droids."  
Kit inspected the holo-projection, "So how was Bail's intelligence so far out?"  
"I'm not sure it was," Obi-Wan said, "Who's to say the attack isn't a cover? A large explosion on the shipyards would help the attack along rather well."  
"How did I miss the attack though?" Bail wondered aloud to no one in particular.  
"So what do we do?" Padme asked.  
"I've seen something like this before," Kit murmured, "in the last campaign."  
He moved closer and gestured to the holographic dots that denoted approaching droids, "It's an air-drop. They'll spread out across the shipyards but their main target will be here at the Administration Building. Obi-Wan, they aren't the brightest of droids and they have numbers on their side; if I'm right and they keep the same pattern as before the majority will attack via the main gate, that's where you and I will have to hold them off."  
"Two Jedi against a whole army of droids," Obi-Wan was smiling a little, "there's something we haven't done for a while."  
"Sorry," Kit said returning the smile, "It's not exactly a whole army, and really just enough to hold the strategic points of the planet until the main invasion force gets here. Luckily they're all headed for the shipyards, a strategy which in this situation is probably their best option. It'll be easy enough to invade from here."  
"Fair enough," here Obi-Wan turned to the two senators and became more serious, "Bail, if they're coming for the Administration Building I need you to get the President, Senator Danu and anybody else you need to, into a bunker or into a ship – somewhere safe. The droids won't be stupid enough not to send some soldiers round the back to try and catch us out so the planetary leaders need to be somewhere safe or, at the very least, easily defensible."  
"That's fine," Bail said, his expression silently assuring his friend that he didn't mind potential danger to himself. Obi-Wan met his gaze but, as was his way, Kit noticed that no ease was brought to him by Bail's confidence.  
"Padme," Obi-Wan continued, not quite looking at her, "I need you to do something particularly dangerous for me."  
"Anything I can do," Padme replied slightly offhandedly.  
Obi-Wan gave her a look which was somewhere between amusement and irritation, "While all this is going on I need you to find the bomber since I'm betting that the plan is the drop him in under cover of this attack."  
Padme nodded, "Is there anywhere he's likely to aim for? Otherwise I have quite a lot of square-footage to cover."  
Kit had changed the holo-display; it now showed the cross-section of the shipyards.  
"It probably won't be too far away from anywhere that matters," he was muttering, almost to himself. Then he straightened up, "I've got a feeling about the lower levels," he said, pointing to the long service gantries that ran underneath the main shipyards.  
Padme nodded; she'd long ago learned that a Jedi 'feeling' was, in most cases, tantamount to visual proof.

The droids almost blotted out the sun, a single black metal cloud in the sky.  
"Kit," Obi-Wan began, "I should have thanked you for your advice about Quinlan."  
"That's no problem," Kit said, "it's not that I disagree with you Obi-Wan or disapprove. I really don't know what I think about Vos; I just want you to know what you're getting yourself in for."  
"I know. Kit I want you to be sure that I do know exactly what I'm getting myself in for," he paused, contemplating how to go on. "You remember the saying, 'no Jedi is ever alone'?"  
"I do."  
"Then you'll understand why I can't leave Quinlan on his own facing the entre Order. Besides he's my friend."  
Kit nodded. The two Jedi stood on the main concourse in the path of the storm.  
"Is it just me, or is fighting a battle on a first official mission a bit of a step-backwards for a team formed for diplomatic purposes only?" Kit wondered aloud.

Bail checked the number of clips in his blaster and then looked round the assembled company. Senator Danu, President Onara Kuat and three other officials had joined him in the hall.  
"Madam President, you obviously know the layout of this building better than I do; which is safer for us to head for, landing pad or bunker?"  
"Surely the landing pad is suicide if we cannot take off," she retorted.  
"Actually there is only one ship in the system at the moment Madam President," Bail pointed out. "If we hurry, we can still take off."  
She looked at Danu and then shook her head, "No. We cannot run from our duty. The bunker it shall be Senator."  
The look she gave him was one of surprising respect. He found himself looking away, embarrassed because he'd forgotten he cardinal rule when judging people; make your assessment when there's a crisis. His gaze, focusing on the scene out of the transparisteel window, caught the two Jedi and he started to smile. Kit had paced out about a yard away from Obi-Wan and was just turning back to face him. Neither had their lightsabers drawn yet and the cloud of droids was only metres from them. Bail turned back to his charges, "Not that there isn't a sense of urgency to the situation," he said lightly, "but this might be worth watching."

They couldn't have been more than a metre away when Kit's silent signal came. Sensing it immediately Obi-Wan sprinted forward; at the same time Kit dropped down, cupping his large hands in a stirrup for his friend. Obi-Wan leaped nimbly into it, letting Kit take his full weight. Kit bent with it and then used the momentum to aid his arm muscles and catapult Obi-Wan into the air. Obi-Wan twisted to the right, bending his spine in a backward arc and drawing his lightsaber as he did so, swinging it through the first rank of droids which were dropping through the air towards him. Kit meanwhile, having lifted him upwards, had continued moving, twirling on the spot and drawing his own lightsaber in the same motion to cut into the droid that had landed behind him. Obi-Wan flipped over completely with a nudge of the Force keeping the momentum going and landed with his back to Kit. Now circling constantly the two Jedi, arguably now two parts of the same being as the Force linked them in thought, danced through the droid army.

Bail watched for a moment longer, then looked around at the stunned faces. He could understand; he'd been impressed by Jedi skill for the first time once as well.  
"Well," he said, bending his right elbow to brace against the kick of the blaster, "shall we go?"


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: In which the team enjoy success.

Padme heard the first explosions as battle commenced between the Jedi and the droids. Silently she hoped that they'd be alright and that Bail would be too. This was the worst part about war, waiting for the others to come back.  
She was descending the steps to the maintenance gantries, which were formed into two lanes with crates and machinery packed into the space in the middle, when she spotted movement. Reflexively she crouched low onto the bottom step; the movement wasn't that of a droid, that much was obvious. As she waited she spotted it again, this time it became the recognisable shape of a man with a large backpack and a cap pulled down over his face. Still Padme didn't move.  
The man turned his head, looking round; he couldn't have seen her because he continued to creep at a steady pace away down the gantry. Breathing as loudly as she dared Padme lowered herself off the step and took off her boots. Then, bare-foot and as silent as a breeze, she followed her target.

Whirling round and round in their dance the two Jedi were indeed alright, for the moment at least. Kit had known Obi-Wan some years so knew how skilled he was; even so, it was a pleasing experience to fight with him again. The experience, however, had changed. When once Obi-Wan's core was one of bright light, now it was dimmed. It was if a cloud had settled across the sun and Kit knew this to be the lingering effects of Zigoola. Obi-Wan had never spoken of the nature of his condition and other Jedi had been warned against enquiring into it but now Kit understood, if only a little. What he understood much better was Obi-Wan's earlier statement: "no Jedi is ever alone". Today, if only for a while, Obi-Wan was not fighting the inner darkness alone and Kit could tell his friend knew this.  
In this way the Jedi danced; in this way they fought.

Bail turned a corner and jerked backwards as he spotted the droids down the corridor. The droids were only an instant behind him, marking their realisation with a spattering of blaster fire. Ducking back round the corner Bail squeezed off a couple of shots behind him as he pushed his charges back down the corridor; "Find another route Senator, this one's blocked!" he shouted.  
Danu swung sharply to the right, down another passage and the rest followed him, Bail last of all, running after the others as they hurtled down a flight of steps.  
"The bunker should be just down here!" Danu yelled, turning off to the right yet again.  
"Good!" Bail called back, and secretly prayed he'd put enough clips in his blaster as the shadows of droids appeared at the top of the stairs.

Padme stopped; her quarry had come to a halt as well, checking about him and then disappearing between two banks of machinery. Drawing her blaster Padme crept to the corner of a large boiler of some kind then swung round to cover the opening.  
She wasn't quite fast enough. A fist met with her jaw out of the darkness and she reeled backwards. She felt hands on her throat as the bomber pinned her to the gantry floor. Choking under the pressure of his fingers Padme brought her knee back and kicked him in the stomach; not hard enough to wind him properly but enough to break his hold; she exploited this slight advantage by driving her elbow into the side of his head. He rolled along the gantry and then scrambled up as she did, pulling off his backpack and pulling out a small cube about the size of his fist. Padme didn't wait to find out if the bomb, for that's what it had to be, was in fact armed. She dashed forward and put her whole weight and momentum into his back. She let herself fall on top of him as he hit the floor and kicked out hard at the hand that held the bomb.  
Afterwards she would probably have put it down to luck that he let go of the bomb because of the pain, which tumbled over the edge of the gantry and fell just far enough before exploding that the only effect that the shipyards suffered was a series of slight tremors. Though the sight of the Jedi silhouetted against the rolling fireball was truly spectacular.

There hadn't been too great a crowd to see them off, though Danu had assured the two senators that the President had put in a call to Corescant asking for the use of Republican Grand Army bomb-disposal units if the need ever arose again. When they'd said goodbye Kit made Danu promise to keep himself out of trouble and in the Senate; Danu had promised to do his best. As soon as the ship hit hyperspace Kit went to meditate and Padme to catch some sleep. Obi-Wan caught Bail before he did the same.  
"Bail, I thought you ought to know, though Kit told me not to tell you until we'd spoken to the Council but in case they might not want you to know…" he trailed off.  
"Maybe you shouldn't be telling me," Bail suggested. He'd long ago grown accustomed to the fact that, friends though they may be, he and Obi-Wan would not be sharing every piece of information they had.  
"No I think you should know," Obi-Wan said, sounding more convinced. "Your intelligence was right."  
"Well yes there was a bombing but let's not skirt round the fact that we missed a big invasion force," Bail said, "and like it or not that's going down as a mistake on my part."  
"Actually," Obi-Wan said quietly, "your intelligence was dead on."  
"How do you mean."  
"Bail you only look for Separatist activity. The bomber himself was a Sep agent; that we know. The army was not Separatist."  
"What was it?"  
Obi-Wan shook his head, "There was a symbol of some kind on each of the droids, not really recognisable but I'm willing to run it through the analysis archives before we despair completely. Even so, it wasn't Separatist. In fact I don't think there was ever going to be any reinforcements – I think the one ship we spotted in the system was all there was."  
"So why -?" Bail began but was unable to finish.  
"Someone else wanted to attack Kuat," Obi-Wan answered anyway, "but why, or who, I don't know."

Further conversation was interrupted by the co-pilot's entrance, "Excuse me General, there's a holo-call coming through. Shall I patch it through to the conference room?"  
"Yes please," Obi-Wan said. He looked round at Bail, "Shall we?"  
The holo-projection was of the Chancellor and Master Yoda. Obi-Wan offered them both a small bow before enquiring as to the nature of the call.  
"It concerns this debate over your apprentice Obi-Wan," the Chancellor explained. "Though it often seems as though a constant debate rages over Anakin's situation – and given his gifts why not? – don't you feel that we should end it now? I feel that we can only benefit from knighting the boy as he deserves. His reputation would – "  
"I know what you're going to say Chancellor," Obi-Wan cut in. Bail could see him controlling himself, taking his time to choose the best reply, "I have no doubt that Anakin has gifts and he has certainly worked hard to achieve the rank of Jedi Knight; given that I am his master I have had the opportunity to see this far better than anyone else has," this last, Bail thought, was very deliberately stressed for the Chancellor's benefit, "but however much we would gain I feel Anakin would gain nothing. He is not ready Chancellor and this is not something he can or should have to learn by experience. I myself may have been knighted too early and I would not wish the experience on my padawan."  
The Chancellor seemed hanging onto the idea in spite of these words, "Master Kenobi, what can I say to persuade you –"  
Obi-Wan then interrupted him a second time.  
"Are you ordering me Chancellor? _Can_ you order me?"  
The tone was far harsher than Bail would have dared to use and harsh enough to raise one of Yoda's eyebrows but neither said anything.  
"It is a Jedi matter Chancellor," Obi-Wan finished, "Jedi will handle it."  
The Chancellor visibly sighed and sagged a little, "I sometimes feel that no outsider will ever truly understand the Jedi." He nodded once, "Thank you Master Kenobi; we will trouble you no further. You and your friends have earned a rest." This last included a nod to Bail for his part in the operation.  
Obi-Wan bowed in return, "Thank you Chancellor."

Bail let out a low whistle as the holo-projection faded, "I forget just how crazy you can be."  
Obi-Wan smiled but didn't respond. Bail didn't break the silence immediately but eventually he felt he needed to.  
"Obi-Wan, are you afraid? Don't recite your Jedi code to me just answer me properly."  
His friend, his best friend in the entire galaxy, looked so much smaller in that moment, "You mean of the dark side? Of the Sith?" He sighed heavily, "In truth, I really am."  
They both knew what he was not saying; that his greatest fear was for his own mind, that since Zigoola nothing on that score was entirely certain anymore.  
"We're doing some good though," Bail pointed out, as a way of saying 'you're not falling to the dark side, your mind is still your own'.  
Obi-Wan suddenly smiled, "That's the good thing about this team idea."  
He looked up at him and his words filled Bail with pride to call Obi-Wan Kenobi a friend; a friend conquering his fear every day of his life.  
"We will be forged in the fires of war; we shall be great, we shall be impossible, we shall be shining. Let the Sith try and fight that."


End file.
